Monica Puig vs. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Australian Open R1 Preview

Monica Puig and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova loomed as two of the most dangerous unseeded players heading into the Australian Open main draw, the pair will go head-to-head in what should be a fierce opening round clash. Puig and Pavlyuchenkova are both extremely dangerous at their best but both are very inconsistent, which of the two will pull it together in Melbourne?

Monica Puig of Puerto Rico in action during her second-round match at the 2019 Sydney International WTA Premier tennis tournament

Puig and Pavlyuchenkova have both made fairly disappointing starts to their respective seasons.

Monica Puig’s only 2 victories in 2019 have been against Bethanie Mattek-Sands. Puig was beaten in straight sets by Su-Wei Hsieh in the second round in Auckland, more recently Puig lost to Anett Kontaveit in 3 sets in the opening round of the Sydney International having secured a lucky-loser spot after a 1-6 0-6 demolition at the hands of Aliaksandra Sasnovich.

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova started her season in Shenzhen where she crushed Ana Bogdan in the first round before surprisingly succumbing to Veronika Kudermetova in the second round. Pavlyuchenkova also competed in Hobart last week where she was beaten in the opening round by Vera Lapko in 3 sets.

The only previous match between the pair took place during Monica Puig’s stunning gold medal run in Rio back in 2016, Puig won that match in straight sets.